Not everyone has a natural talent for design, but it is possible to use a few tools to find attractive color palettes for painting your truck. Using a Pantone color guide and an online color wheel, you can create a unique, personalized design that will set your truck apart from the crowd, in a relatively short time.

1

Use a Pantone color guide to choose a main color. Pantone is a visual list of standardized colors used mainly by graphic designers but is a great tool for anyone who wants to use color because a savvy paint mixer will be able to match the shade.

2

Insert the Pantone color number (each color has a different number) into the color wheel so the wheel can tell you the exact opposite shade. This color will highlight your main color. If you do not like this color you can break it down further. For example if your main color is purple, the opposing color will be a shade of orange. You can further break down the orange into red and yellow. If the purple is light the red will usually look better while the yellow is more startling against dark purple.

3

Print a sample of the colors on a sheet of paper using your home printer. Pantone colors will almost always hold true when printing but just in case use a flash drive to store the color number and a sample of the color.

4

Take the sample to a paint shop.

5

Have the shop make paint in the shades you have chosen. For a cheaper option, ask the shop keepers about ready made paint in similar colors.

6

Paint the body of the truck using the main color.

7

Use the highlighting color for decorative effects like lines along the side, to frame rims, around curves or anywhere you want to highlight.

About the Author

Carmen Laboy has been publishing short stories and poetry since 1998. Her work appears online and in "Tonguas Experimental Literature Magazine." She was a script reader for the Duke City Shootout 2010, arts education intern at 516arts gallery and has worked as an assistant for many artists. She studied at the Universidad de Puerto Rico and Escuela de Artes Plasticas, a prestigious art college.